Las vihuelas en la época de Isabel la Católica

Abstract

During the second half of the fifteenth century and the first years of the sixteenth, the vihuela was in a full phase of development. Using documentary, iconographical and literary sources, this study reviews the initial phase of its history in sections that deal with the instrument, its makers and players, its technique and repertoire. The article shows the diversity of designs and sizes of instruments that were indistinguishably played using a plectrum, the fingers, or with a bow, and held on the knee, between the legs, or on the shoulder. This last but signifi cant group is omitted in many previous studies. Simultaneously a fiddle, a viol and a guitar, made by the same ma - kers as lutes, harps, rebecs and keyboards, it was an instrument played in a range of classes of Spanish society.